Skip to main content

Natural Semantic Metalanguage and lexicography

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:

Abstract

This chapter gives perspectives on meaning description in lexicography from the standpoint of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to linguistics, which among contemporary approaches to linguistics can claim the longest and most serious engagement with lexical semantics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  • Apresjan, J. (2000). Systematic lexicography (trans: Windle, K.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrios Rodríguez, M. A., & Goddard, C. (2013). ‘Degrad verbs’ in Spanish and English: Collocations, lexical functions and contrastive NSM semantic analysis. Functions of Language, 20(2), 219–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bromhead, H. (2011). The bush in Australian English. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 31(4), 445–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fellbaum, C. (1998). WordNet: An electronic lexical database. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gladkova, A. (2010). Russkaja kul’turnaja semantika: emocii, cennosti, zhiznennye ustanovki [Russian cultural semantics: Emotions, values, attitudes]. Moscow: Languages of Slavonic Cultures.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C. (Ed.). (2006). Ethnopragmatics: Understanding discourse in cultural context. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C. (2007). A “lexicographic portrait” of forgetting. In M. Amberber (Ed.), The language of memory in a cross-linguistic perspective (pp. 119–137). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C. (2009). Not taking yourself too seriously in Australian English: Semantic explications, cultural scripts, corpus evidence. Intercultural Pragmatics, 6(1), 29–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C. (2010). Semantic molecules and semantic complexity (with special reference to “environmental” molecules). Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 8(1), 123–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C. (2011). Semantic analysis (rev. 2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C. (2012). Semantic primes, semantic molecules, semantic templates: Key concepts in the NSM approach to lexical typology. Linguistics, 50(3), 711–743.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C. (2014). Jesus! vs. Christ! In Australian English: Semantics, secondary interjections and corpus analysis. In J. Romero-Trillo (Ed.), Yearbook of corpus linguistics and pragmatics 2014. New empirical and theoretical paradigms (pp. 55–77). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C. (2015a). Words as carriers of cultural meaning. In J. R. Taylor (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of the word (pp. 380–400). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C. (2015b). Verb classes and valency alternations (NSM approach), with special reference to English physical activity verbs. In A. Malchukov & B. Comrie (Eds.), Valency classes in the world’s languages (pp. 1649–1680). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C. (2016). Semantic molecules and their role in NSM lexical definitions. Cahiers de lexicologie, 2(109), 13–36. (Special issue on “Definitions”, edited by Alain Polguère and Dorota Sikora).

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C. (Ed.). (2017). Minimal English for a global world: Improved communication using fewer words. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C., & Schalley, A. C. (2010). Semantic analysis. In N. Indurkhya & F. J. Damerau (Eds.), Handbook of natural language processing (2nd ed., pp. 92–120). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C., & Wierzbicka, A. (Eds.) (2002). Meaning and universal grammar: Theory and empirical findings (2 vols.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C., & Wierzbicka, A. (2014a). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C., & Wierzbicka, A. (2014b). Semantic fieldwork and lexical universals. Studies in Language, 38(1), 80–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, C., & Wierzbicka, A. (2015). What does Jukurrpa (‘dreamtime’, ‘dreaming’) mean? A semantic and conceptual journey of discovery. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2015(1), 43–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, J. (2012). The Altyerre story: ‘suffering badly by translation’. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 23(2), 158–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levisen, C. (2012). Cultural semantics and social cognition: A case study on the Danish universe of meaning. Berlin: de Gruyter.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Levisen, C. (2017). Personhood constructs in language and thought: New evidence from Danish. In Z. Ye (Ed.), The semantics of nouns (pp. 120–146). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levisen, C., & Jogie, M. R. (2015). The Trinidadian ‘theory of mind’: Personhood and postcolonial semantics. International Journal of Language and Culture, 2(2), 169–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mel’čuk, I. A. (2012). Semantics: From meaning to text. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morato, J., Marzal, M. A., Lloréns, J., & Moreiro, J. (2004). WordNet applications. In P. Sojka, K. Pala, P. Smrž, C. Fellbaum, & P. Vossen (Eds.), GWC 2004: Proceedings of the Second International WordNet Conference (pp. 270–278). Brno: Masaryk University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peeters, B. (Ed.). (2006). Semantic primes and universal grammar: Evidence from the romance languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinclair, J. (1991). Introduction. Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary. London: Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waters, S. (2012). “It’s rude to VP”: The cultural semantics of rudeness. Journal of Pragmatics, 44, 1051–1062.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waters, S. (2017). Nice as a cultural keyword: The semantics behind Australian discourses of sociality. In C. Levisen & S. Waters (Eds.), Cultural keywords in discourse (pp. 25–54). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wierzbicka, A. (1972). Semantic primitives. Frankfurt: Athenaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wierzbicka, A. (1988). The semantics of grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wierzbicka, A. (1992). Semantics: Culture and cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wierzbicka, A. (1996). Chapter 9: Semantics and lexicography. In Semantics: Primes and universals (pp. 259–286). Oxford: Oxford University Press. First published 1992. [http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/347508/spu-lexicography.pdf]

    Google Scholar 

  • Wierzbicka, A. (1997). Understanding cultures through their key words. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wierzbicka, A. (1999). Emotions across language and cultures: Diversity and universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wierzbicka, A. (2006). English: Meaning and culture. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wierzbicka, A. (2009). Exploring English phraseology with two tools: NSM semantic methodology and Google. Journal of English Linguistics, 37(2), 101–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wierzbicka, A. (2014). Imprisoned in English: The hazards of English as a default language. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wierzbicka, A. (2016). Two levels of verbal communication: Universal and culture-specific. In L. de Saussure & A. Rocci (Eds.), Verbal communication [Handbook of communication sciences] (pp. 447–482). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, J. O. (2014). The culture of Singapore English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ye, Z. (Ed.). (2017). The semantics of nouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Dictionaries

  • [LDOCE]. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. (2003) New Edition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laughren, M., Kenneth H. & Warlpiri Lexicography Group. (2006). Warlpiri-English Encyclopaedic dictionary. Electronic files. St Lucia: University of Queensland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zorc, D. (1986). Yolŋu-Matha dictionary. Darwin Institute of Technology: School of Australian Linguistics.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cliff Goddard .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany

About this entry

Cite this entry

Goddard, C. (2017). Natural Semantic Metalanguage and lexicography. In: Hanks, P., de Schryver, GM. (eds) International Handbook of Modern Lexis and Lexicography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45369-4_14-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45369-4_14-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-45369-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-45369-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics